The gruelling 228km event attracts riders from throughout Australia and beyond.

In 2009, several professional teams entered, including three of the nation’s top cycling outfits - Fly V Australia, Pratties and Budget Forklifts.

Port Macquarie fielded an impressive line-up, which featured Chris Jory (recently returned from his first year racing professionally in Europe), Brendan Brooks who heads up the Shortis Cycling Team, Drapac Porsche’s Angus Morton, mountain bike world champion Jason English and Ironman legend Tim Berkel.

Morton got off to a nervous start when his bike fell off the roof of the car in transit to the race, badly damaging it.

It was Darcy, from Gordon Street Cycles, who immediately came to the rescue, loaning Morton his own bike, which was still being fine-tuned on the start line.

After commissaries held the bunch in an unusually long neutral zone, it didn’t take long for the impatient riders to make a move once free to race.

Jory was in a good position to join the group of nine, who quickly put a large chunk of time into the peloton.

By the start of the 18km climb up the Gibraltar Range, the break had a seemingly un-catchable six minutes.

Three riders were dropped from the lead group, initiating a concerted effort by a bunch of 25, to chase down the breakaway, which was successful as the race approached Glen Innes.

The group of 30 or so remained intact until the short climb at Wire Gully, 30km from Inverell.

Again, Jory showed his savvy by judging the best attack to go with.

And, he was looking a fair bet for a win until he was suddenly overcome with fatigue in the last eight kilometres.

Jory crossed the line in a very creditable 10th place in six hours and 30 minutes – only four minutes behind the winners.

Morton, a further three minutes in arrears, snared 26th spot.

English and Brooks each registered six hours and 41 minutes, while Berkel clocked six hours and 56 minutes.

The only Port Macquarie representative in division 2, David McDonald, seemed to find his legs in the second half of the race and had an extremely strong finish, coming into Inverell mid-field.

Col Turner was Port Macquarie’s rider of the day in division 3, the largest group of competitors.

He looked like he was out for a Sunday ride as he powered, seemingly effortlessly, over the Gibraltar range and was the best-placed local.

Todd Cockshutt and Gareth Davies gave each other moral support, finishing in the top half of the field, while Lloyd Newell found out that two training rides in preparation for the epic event was not quite enough, pulling out after 117km.